Burial law is threatening archaeological research

[kevin wooldridge]

I find it disturbing that the MoJ is giving the religious views of groups whose beliefs would not have been the same as the people whose remains are in dispute the right to decide what happens.

This is nothing new. Most burials disinterred through licence after the 1857 Burial Act, were reinterred with Christian ceremony.

[mpoole]

This is nothing new. Most burials disinterred through licence after the 1857 Burial Act, were reinterred with Christian ceremony.

That's not any better, really. Just because it's done doesn't make it right. Gving a group control over remains they claim but can't prove other than by the volume of their arguments does the remains no service, either.

Apologies for the original sentence, it was NOT exactly well-constructed but I was distracted by chocolate.

[gwyl]

I find it disturbing that the MoJ is giving the religious views of groups whose beliefs would not have been the same as the people whose remains are in dispute the right to decide what happens.

to the victor the spoils, is it not?

[AcademiaTrowl]

This is nothing new. Most burials disinterred through licence after the 1857 Burial Act, were reinterred with Christian ceremony.

Not true for archaeology, many Prehistoric and Roman burials are in museums or research collections, some Saxon burials were reburied and many, but by no means all medieval and post medieval burials have been reinterred both with and without Christian ceremonies. But remember Kevin the 1981 disused burial grounds act applies to post-medieval cemeteries and many bodies buried under this law were reinterred in municipal cemeteries.

The old licence issued before 2008 said "d) The remains shall, if of sufficient scientific interest, be conveyed to [...Museum...] for archival storage or they shall be conveyed to a burial ground in which interments may legally take place and there be reinterred."

The new licence has removed that first bit, and removes the choice of appropriate action on behalf of the archaeologist. This means no skeletons no matter how old will be put in museums, ever again, unless a change is made.

[mpoole]

to the victor the spoils, is it not?

Squeaky wheel and grease springs to mind.

[janice]

I've sent my letter to Ken Clarke. You can get it off that website address that was posted earlier. that letter by Djanogly in the paper yesterday was a last straw - they're not going to do anything and it looks as if the Ministry of Justice wants to be in charge of archaeolooigcal science and will then make decisions based on religion. What next - creationsim? And who's giving the Justice people advice, anyway, ibecause it obviously isnt any of those professors (and give the academics a break - they're going to lose their jobs too, with the fees starting :face-rain:

[BAJR]

Sent to me today.......

In 2008 the Ministry of Justice took over the administration of the 1857 Burial Act. Since then, licences for the archaeological excavation of human remains in England and Wales have required the eventual reburial of ALL remains and screening off of ALL sites of ALL periods, no matter what their value to scientific research, public outreach and the advancement of knowledge. (please find more info in link attached)

On 2nd February 2011, forty of the UK's leading professors of archaeology wrote to Kenneth Clarke expressing their concern about this situation. This included our head of department Prof Chris Scarre and Prof Charlotte Roberts also from Durham.

Ive had a meeting with Prof Scarre this morning about what we can do to go back to how it was pre2008 where only christian burials post 2000years were reburied after scientific analysis was carried out.
He has agreed with me in the need for as many people as possible to email there local MP, local archaeological trust (to contact the justice minister) and themselves write send an email to the Justice minister-Ken Clarke.

To make it easy the ASDS (see link attached) have provided background info on their website and also a template letter for people to send to Ken Clarke.

This is a major threat to archaeology therefore the more people who send emails and letters the better chance we have to show that archaeology opposes this new scheme and demands a return to the well tried system practised up to 2008.
I hope you can help and spread the word
NB- ASDS note: This is likely to be a long campaign and so we would like to keep a running tally of who has written in, so please email BurialLaw@uclan.ac.uk and let us know.

http://www.deathandsociety.org/pages/eve...news_id=68

[Womble]

Hijacking an older thread, good balanced (depending on your view! ) article in New Scientist today about reburial, repatriation and retention of human remains from archaeological contexts. Worth a read.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20...sense.html

[moreno]

Hijacking an older thread, good balanced (depending on your view! ) article in New Scientist today... http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20...sense.html

I would agree with the "depending on your view"